Eduardo CesarAt 45, German physicist Klaus Capelle, recently installed as president of the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC), has taken an uncommon career path. He received his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Würzburg, an institution located in the small city of that name in northern Bavaria and whose history encompasses 600 years and 14 Nobel prizes. His 1993 master’s dissertation and his 1997 doctoral thesis each won the best-of-the-year award from the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy. As an expert in condensed matter physics and quantum chemistry, Capelle had the academic credentials to go on to a successful career in his native country.
But soon after completing his doctorate, he opted for a grant to study in a tropical country where he could spend vacations in the 1990s. “Brazil’s reputation in Germany was good and I knew that the University of São Paulo (USP) was an excellent university,” says the physicist. “I thought it would be a big challenge to go to a country with a different culture and a younger science program than Germany’s.” Capelle landed at the São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in 1997 with the initial idea of doing post-doctoral studies under Professor Luiz Nunes de Oliveira, and then returning to Europe after a year. It did not turn out that way. From 1999 to 2003 he was a FAPESP Young Investigator grant recipient at the São Carlos Chemistry Institute at USP. During that period and in the years following, he also spent time as a visiting researcher at the universities of Missouri in the US, Bristol in the UK, Lund in Sweden and Livre in Berlin.
“I could have gone back to Germany, or to the University of Bristol where I had been invited, but I decided to stay in Brazil,” says Capelle, who was a professor at IFSC from 2003 to 2009. “In Europe I would just be refining an existing organized system, perhaps working at a university with a centuries-old history. Here I can help build something new.” The ability to improvise and be flexible in the face of adversity—qualities normally associated with Brazilian researchers—is one of the national traits most attractive to Capelle, who has written more than 90 papers published in scientific journals and serves as a reviewer and editorial board member for several publications.
The German physicist was set for a long career at IFSC. But in 2009 he once again decided to invest his energies in something new. He left his job at USP and took a position as full professor at UFABC, the recently-created institution in Santo André, in the São Paulo metropolitan area. At UFABC, in addition to his work as a professor and researcher, Capelle decided to develop his skill as a manager. From 2010 until January 2014, he held the position of Dean of Research at the university. In February he became its president, having been elected to the position in December 2013. “The title of president describes not what I am, but what I do,” comments the physicist, whose wife is a Brazilian trained in the field of occupational therapy. “It is a gratifying experience. As a professor, I could obtain a scholarship for a single student. As a dean, I could do that for 100. As president, the scale of benefits I can provide for students becomes even greater.”
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